The first collected edition of Hertz's papers on electromagnetic waves

HERTZ, Heinrich.

Untersuchungen über die Ausbreitung der elektrischen Kraft.

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1892.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #001876

8vo (216x140 mm). vi, [2], 295 [1] pp. Modern marbled cardboard, spine gilt. Interior very clean. A fine copy. ----

PMM 377; Norman 1061; Waller 11374. - FIRST COLLECTED EDITION of Hertz's series of papers on electromagnetic waves, originally published from 1887 through 1890, mostly in the Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaft or in the Annalen der Physik und Chemie. The papers include Hertz's report of his proof that electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed as light ("Ueber die Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit der elektrodynamischen Wirkungen", first published in the Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissemchaft, 2 February 1888). "For Hertz his determination... of the velocity...was the most exciting moment in the entire sequence of experiments" (DSB). The later papers report a series of "more qualitative experiments carried out by Hertz in 1888 on the analogy between electricity and light waves" (DSB), in which he showed that electromagnetic waves are longer than light, but like light can be refracted, reflected and polarized. "This discovery and its demonstration led directly to radio communication, television and radar" (Dibner Heralds of Science 71).

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